How can domestic abuse be stopped?

Peter Diessel fidgeted as he sat at a table with other men who had physically abused women. It was his latest attempt to change behavior that stretches back 18 years. His problem, he told the group, had surfaced shortly after his honeymoon.

"That's when I started getting abusive," Diessel said later, recalling the moment when he first violently laid hands on his wife.

The recent gathering in a windowless room of a Rolling Meadows office building is part of one of 80 programs in Illinois that aims to stop domestic abusers from battering. Born in the 1980s out of the feminist movement, the programs subscribe to the theory that abusers are overwhelmingly men who use violence to exercise control over women and that society sanctions, even encourages, such behavior.

This gender-based, one-size-fits-all approach to reforming batterers is strongly endorsed by victims' advocates and the state agency that oversees such programs. Every year, judges order thousands of people convicted of domestic abuse to participate in the programs, often jailing those who don't comply.

But critics say there's no sound evidence that these programs work. They point to research that shows many abusers suffer from psychological problems and substance abuse—and are just as likely to be women as men. As they see it, batterers should receive therapy tailored to their individual experiences and issues.

"It's a very contentious field," said Larry Bennett, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an expert on batterer intervention programs. "A lot of mental health professionals never bought into [the gender-based model].

"But others worry that if we redefine it as a mental health issue and place the problem of domestic violence between the ears, we are pandering to the denying and blaming mechanisms that many batterers use."

Both methods teach abusers to express themselves without abuse, though they differ in important ways.

The batterer intervention programs use group discussions, written exercises and role playing to show how batterers are similar, and how gender and socialization fuel their behavior. (The handful of Illinois programs for women convicted of domestic battery assume that many are victims and focus on helping them recover from trauma.)

Under the tailored approach, gender plays no role in treatment. Batterers receive therapy to address childhood neglect and other causes of psychological problems linked to abuse.

The debate over the two methods is occurring at a time when more than 100,000 domestic-related crimes are reported each year in Illinois.

The stakes are high: One large study found that the most important reason for a victim to take an abuser back was his decision to attend one of these intervention programs.

'Because I'm a man'

The first intervention programs drew inspiration from the feminist-consciousness-raising movements, preaching gender equality. They made it up as they went along.

"We were clueless," said Bennett, who launched such a program in McHenry County in 1985. And "we certainly weren't evaluated."

But judges were hungry for alternatives to jail, Bennett said, so they began ordering men convicted of domestic battery to participate. Guidelines came in the mid-1990s when a statewide committee of victims' advocates, academics and government officials crafted the Illinois Protocol for Partner Abuse Intervention Programs.

In 2008, nearly 14,000 people went through such programs in Illinois. Some participants had slapped or shoved girlfriends or wives. Others nearly beat them to death.

At the recent gathering in Rolling Meadows, the men ranged in age from the early 20s to middle-age. They sat around a table while the female facilitators prodded them to discuss conflict in their relationships.

Some were eager to share; others stared at the ceiling or picked at their nails.

When a lanky man with a goatee talked about his violent urges, a facilitator was quick to respond.

"It's part of the socialization," said Eboni Morris of Associates in Human Development Counseling, which the organization that runs the program. "We think: 'I act the way I do because I'm a man.' If you look back to your childhood, you can see that you model your behavior: 'I want to be like my dad, or my brother.' "

Participants nodded when the facilitators spoke. But it was clear from their comments that many felt that they were the real victims.

A 25-year-old Schaumburg man, who asked that his name be withheld, later bluntly admitted he doesn't listen to the facilitators because they dismiss his complaints that his estranged wife also was abusive.

A nationwide study published in 2002 sponsored by the federal government found that batterers who complete such programs, known as the "Duluth Model," are less likely to re-assault than those who don't. And a 2005 study led by Bennett of the 30 batterer intervention programs in Cook County found 15 percent of the completers were rearrested for domestic violence, compared with 37 percent of program dropouts.

But Bennett said the studies are largely meaningless because they lacked a proper control group. He said participants who complete such programs are likely to be more motivated than others to improve behavior and would be less inclined to offend again. Factors such as unemployment or substance abuse may play a larger role in re-offending, he said.

Critics say the problem with the programs is that they ignore research linking domestic violence to substance abuse and psychological problems, such as attachment disorders, traced to childhood abuse or neglect.

"The Duluth Model was developed by people who didn't understand anything about therapy," said Donald Dutton, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia who has studied abusive personalities and insists gender doesn't play a role. "Feminists don't like psychological explanations, but they're necessary if we ever want to stop domestic violence."

Under Illinois protocol, intervention programs refer abusers with substance abuse problems for additional treatment before or in conjunction with their batterer intervention program.

But the protocol stresses that substance abuse is not the cause of domestic violence. And it prohibits the programs from stressing therapy, including couples counseling, as treatment.

Teresa Tudor, the Illinois Department of Human Services official who oversees the batterer intervention programs, said though some abusers suffer from psychological problems, substance abuse and other issues, that doesn't explain why they abuse. Tudor said framing it that way helps justify their acts, and couples counseling could put victims at risk.

Even skeptics of the gender-based approach, including Bennett, point out that substance abuse counseling and other forms of therapy have not been proven to be more effective at treating abusers. But he thinks it's important to experiment with them while keeping existing programs intact.

Many state-backed programs have begun incorporating therapeutic elements such as anger management. The Rolling Meadows program also touches on the hurtful psychological effects of growing up with abuse.

Diessel, 42, a long-married suburban businessman, has sought a variety of professional help. He said substance-abuse treatment made him stop physically abusing his wife.

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